


Remembrance

by bellyuppo



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Summer Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 17:12:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18721414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellyuppo/pseuds/bellyuppo
Summary: Hotch and Reid enjoy a slow day at the beach.





	Remembrance

Aaron watches the sun glint off the waves of the beach, locking his legs with Spencer's as he leans deeper into his embrace. They're situated in a small private sector of a small private coast, draped beneath a parasol half-atop, half-squeezed-beyond the borders of a thin beach towel while they steadily roast in the heat of the summer shade. 

Several feet away, Jack is doing his merry best to construct a metropolis of sandcastles and sand-skyscrapers, the odd sand-flying-alien-spaceship peppered between the range of tall shapes and sizes that sort of begin to droop into themselves the second he moves onto his next project.

Aaron enjoys the lazy afternoon. The taste of colored popsicles still rests on his tongue, and a generous breeze keeps him just the right degree of warm. He's comfortable, kind of sleepy, and, boxed in by the two most important people in his life, can't help but think that for a person who doesn't ascribe to the concept of paradise, well, this comes pretty damn close.

"Aaron," Spencer whispers urgently into his ear. He's curled against their folded canvas bag for a pillow, Aaron lounging over him like a sticky, drowsy, bare-chested human blanket. "Aaron, your phone."

"Hmm?" Aaron hums distractedly.

Spencer flinches. "It's vibrating," he hisses. "F-from your back pocket. The back pocket which right now is pressed unfortunately close to my di-"

The phone vibrates again. Now that he's aware of it Aaron hears the soft _brr, brrrr,_ as it travels up the seat of his shorts. Spencer twitches with a stricken expression, squirming in place like the anxious colt he vehemently denies being every time it's brought up but secretly, blatantly is.

Aaron smirks, flattening his ass further over the V of Spencer's hips just to see him jerk. It gains him a dirty glare, chapped lips pursing into a betrayed pout, and he chuckles, obligingly tilting himself up and away, fishing for his phone with one hand.

"Is it work?" Spencer asks, arching over his shoulder to see. He masks his dismay well, voice even with a bright grin thrown Jack's way when the boy peers at them curiously.

Aaron checks the screen, before he offers the phone up for scrutiny, snorting.

He knows without looking when Spencer's perfunctory _tap, tap, tap,_ delivers him to the three most recent messages of his inbox.

"Oh my god," Spencer laughs, scrolling through the texts.

The first of the three is a sassy _Made you look ;P_  from Emily, the second a cheery _Enjoy the vacay, my doves! <3_ from Penelope. The last and third message is a prim _I absolutely did not condone this_ from Dave, accompanied by a photo of the entire team encircled by streamers and cheap donuts—in Hotch's office—each face a portrait of unrepentant delight though especially Dave's, which can only be translated to mean that he absolutely and enthusiastically _did_.

Aaron remembers locking the door before he left.

"Didn't you lock the door before you left?" Spencer asks, zooming in with two fingers to where his godson Henry is wrestling with a napkin caught betwixt sugary fingers. "Aw."

"I did," Aaron replies. He scoots down to settle his head in his husband's lap, leaving the bottom half of his own legs to bake in the unforgiving sun. Already, he can feel the hints of a tan line which he'll have to deal with for weeks to come, but he has his suit at work and his jeans at home and he's too content to care besides. "I've clearly lost all respect from my coworkers."

"Nonsense," Spencer says, dropping one hand to thread his fingers in Aaron's hair. "They've left your tower of paperwork intact—some shred of it must remain."

Aaron would purr if he could, lids falling to half-mast. "It's criminal. They're criminal. We're harboring an office full of criminals, I should have them arrested."

Spencer's legs jostle with the quiet breath of his laughter. "Even Henry?"

"Even Henry," Aaron confirms, smiling into his husband's thigh.

Their conversation dwindles into an easy silence as they trace the idyllic scene of their son playing by the shore with their eyes. Jack is unfettered by worry or stress, reveling in the week off with his parents—more so for the chance to hone his mad sand-sculpting skills—and Aaron thinks that as long as he has moments like these he will stay a happy, happy man.

It won't always be this way. Jack's growing up with incredible speed, and too soon he'll be shying away from them to chase adventures and dreams of his own. There's also work, and their cases, an unending stream of documented violence that reminds him just how brutal the world really is. Even now, he can't force himself to turn his phone off completely, in part because Spencer, familiar with him as well as if not more than Aaron is familiar with himself, ditched his before their bags ever touched the cabin floor.

Despite the threats, however, Aaron deeply cherishes this moment, and he cherishes the people who are here to spend it with him most of all. He sears the memory of the day in his brain, branding it into the corner where he logs all his memories of similar like, fresh and calm and filled with a soft, wondrous kind of affection reserved solely for the members of his small family.

Even without his husband's eidetic capacity, he knows it's a memory he will never forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review. Thanks :)


End file.
